Fatalist attraction

@wwaycorrigan

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'One always has the vague illusion of taking or making one's own decisions, the illusion itself running in parallel with the awareness that most such calls are made for you by other people, or by circumstances, or just made.'

It's written in the cards. Or is it?

On first reading those lines, I viewed them as touching on fatalistic, insofar as they seem to dismiss individual agency. And they were written by someone whom I wouldn't have associated with fatalism and suchlike, the late and oftentimes great Christopher Hitchens, taken from his memoir, Hitch-22.

On deeper reflection, describing such sentiments as fatalistic is a category error. I can envisage Hitchens rubbishing such a notion were he here to expand on what he wrote — and I wish he were still here with us. He's not, I believe, saying that events are predetermined, that fate is at play. He's simply stating that we're not in charge of our own affairs as much as we may think we are.

Propitious past

Whatever the case and wherever one wants to place such a perspective philosophically, it is worth teasing out a little more.

Going back to our very beginning, none of us had a say in who our parents would be and where we would spend the formative years of our lives.

So if 'a good start is half the battle', it's just pure luck if one gets a propitious introduction to life. And what constitutes a good start is open to interpretation. It's not at all unusual to see those who seemed to have a rather tough upbringing going on to have quite successful lives. This success isn't necessarily in financial terms, although it often is. The more important outcome is that they become influential in whatever field they operate in.

'The outcome of practically everything we do is shaped, in a minor or major way, for good or for bad, by other actors and events.'

Thus, by the time we become adults and with it the notion of being able to make and take our own decisions, the foundations that have already been established can't easily be modified, should one wish to do so.

What's more, to state the obvious, certain things can't be changed at all. For example, a baby that wasn't breastfed, well there's no going back and giving it a go. Same goes for those who didn't have a father growing up. Do note, I'm not saying anything about the positive or negative qualities of these, I'm merely highlighting their inalterability.

The independence illusion

But at least independent adults can have a greater say in the current and future direction of their lives, can't they?

First of all, the idea of a wholly independent person is fanciful, as I've written about before on this blog.

Second, returning to the opening words, we don't have as much influence over the calls that affect us as much as we may like to think.

My being able to stay legally in Colombia has been, and remains, in the hands of others. Yes, it was my decision to come to Colombia in the first instance, but even that was influenced by others. It could also be argued that it would have been better had I not been granted residency, yet this, in a way, supports the point about calls being made for us rather than by us.

In effect, the outcome of practically everything we do — or do not do — is shaped, in a minor or major way, for good or for bad, by other actors and events.

This is not to say we're not without influence in this process. Our own endeavours do play a part.

Rules of engagement

Take the oftentimes complex world of a rugby scrum or ruck — not an analogy the sport-averse Hitchens would endorse. How the players position themselves, the picture they present to the referee, influences the referee's decisions. Some calls are marginal and open to much interpretation, but it's how the referee on the day sees them, together with the manner in which they are shown to him, that determines the outcome.

OK, some days the referee unfairly favours one side over the other. But thus it goes in life.

We can project an image that we think should be to our advantage, but we could be doing so at the wrong time, in the wrong place. Or at the right time but the wrong place, or vice versa. Or the right time and the right place, but the referee isn't on our side that day.

That last scenario in particular tends to lead to either disillusionment or a desire for vengeance. Or a blend of both. The hope is that we quickly get another opportunity before we do irreversible damage to our life chances.

For while many things are beyond our control, we can still try to be agents of positive change.
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